1 carrying a tray containing three human skulls. The King’s washing-tub borne by 30 guards. 2 men carrying a scarlet and gold sedan chair. 300 carrying dishes with a basket in each. 55 carrying blue glass goblets. 50 carrying white glass goblets. 6 carrying a drum trimmed with skulls. 1 carrying umbrella ornamented with eighty human jaw-bones. Men carrying a native sofa. Etc. etc. etc. All the possessions of the king, in fact, from his grandmother to his washing-tub, were to be found, and made no doubt as a whole a tremendous display, though it is by no means unreasonable to say that the sum of the “king’s wealth” brought under the hammer of a London auctioneer would realize little more than would the contents of any first-rate villa-residence at Clapham or Richmond. It should be stated, however, that as well as this household gear, the royal exchequer was brought out and carried in measures. In this again the king was fortunate as regards opportunity for display; _cowries_ form the currency of Dahomey--and goodness knows the many thousands of these it takes to make a single English sovereign--therefore it was easy enough to arrange that, although in form of money the king possessed no more than a little over a thousand pounds, porter after porter should go trooping past, each with such a load of money as made the mouths of the spectators water with envy. Well, their longing was not to remain entirely ungratified. The king, although a vastly rich, is not a greedy man; and annually he makes presents to one and all of his loyal subjects; not in a hole and corner sort of way, but publicly--with the mob before him, and the riches, the cowries, the bales of cloth, the tobacco, and the kegs of rum in heaps and piles and pyramids at his elbow; and scrambles the astonishing gifts fairly and without favour--or so it seems. Let us, however, see what Mr. Forbes has to say on the subject.